No email-hacking: SLC

2018-09-14 08:44:14

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Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) officials yesterday said there was enough evidence gathered from its initial internal investigations into the alleged attempt by an employee to embezzle the US $5.5 million of funds due to SLC, to conclude that no email-hacking had taken place.

The employee in question – who SLC officials refused to identify by name, only stating he was the Head of Finance – had been put on compulsory leave until the completion of the investigation being carried out by the Criminal Investigation Division (CID), SLC Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Ashley de Silva said yesterday.

The employee had sent an email to Sri Lanka’s international television rights partners Sony Pictures Network with a falsified board paper which stated that a payment due for the upcoming England series be made to an offshore account, along with a falsified invoice with the details of that offshore account in Hong Kong.

“The board paper had been signed by three employees of the Finance Division, but the two other individuals had claimed during the internal inquiry that their signatures had been forged, and therefore there was insufficient proof of their involvement,” de Silva said.

“We have sent the Head of Finance on compulsory leave because he has been corresponding with Sony in the past and also since the email with the falsified information was sent from his account.”

What was sufficiently proven in the internal inquiry, de Silva said, was that the email had originated from within SLC’s servers, which was echoed by SLC’s IT Manager Nadeeshan Suriyaarachchige.

“Fake email addresses, using the names of the CEO (Ashley de Silva) and COO (Jerome Jayaratne) were used. During the initial investigation, we recovered all the digital data and that is how we have evidence that this was not as a result of email hacking,” Suriyaarachchige said.

It was previously reported by the media that the individual, who is now on compulsory leave, had claimed that his email had been hacked and as such was not involved in this attempted fraud.

SLC’s Competent Authority (CA) Kamal Pathmasiri, who is also the Secretary to the Minister of Sports, said that those involved will be punished if enough evidence came to light.
“We will take whatever action necessary (to punish anyone involved) but only after we can prove it within a legal framework,” he said. (Shehan Daniel)

Comments - 6

tim Friday, 14 September 2018 10:17

Please dont jump into conclusion so soon. from the start it looked for me is a Email hacking. How on earth someone could think they could give a false account to send 5.5m USD and get away.Signature forging is nothing... These hackers patiently keep gathering information for months and months and wait for the right time. I recently got a warning from Singapore and how Singapore Businesses has lost a staggering 30 Million Dollars to Scammers.I am writing this or everyone to be vigilant especially if you send or get money from overseas. It is your ignorance and unprotected PCs, Networks and Servers that contributes to all these scams

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174

Cynical Friday, 14 September 2018 16:01

"How on earth someone could think they could give a false account to send 5.5m USD and get away" Because they are greedy, but they are also dumb.

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Ram Friday, 14 September 2018 11:35

Produce the alleged offender before court and do not object to bail as the matter is under investigation. Only request court to take the Passport into court custody. He will soon jump out of the country and there will be people to help him

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118

Coconut Republic Friday, 14 September 2018 11:40

All current SLC members, including CEO, COO are for sure is involved. This calls for a money laundering case initiated and tracked. Check all their overseas account's , starting from Hong Kong. Mr. President, this requires death penalty too , as per your statement, upon investigation. This is government of SL assets.

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416

lkboy Friday, 14 September 2018 11:41

Dont they CC these emails to superiors?

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666 Friday, 14 September 2018 17:26

Most likely there is a more powerful hidden hand in the SLC behind such a scam. Hence, there is a strong likelihood that the small fry who had got caught in this scam, including the guy who got suspended, could get bumped off. The dead stay dumb. We all know the story of one time underworld kingpin who got killed inside the court house after getting a complimentary ticket to see Cricket World Cup in UK, courtesy the President of SL Cricket Board. .

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010

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